Excerpts
by Fake Bliss
Summary: Tenji drabble collection. Prompt 2: Gossip
1. Lesson

**Author's Note: **Just some drabble that popped into my head while I was working on my chapter fic. Yes I am working on it.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. :P**

Tenten sighed and a vein in her forehead pounded. Most of her weapons lay on the other side of the clearing, and more importantly, out of her reach. It'd be foolish to try to retrieve them with Neji standing between. Hand-to-hand was her only option.

She charged at Neji. She kicked at his stomach. Neji pushed her leg aside, knocking her off balance. Tenten quickly regained balance and spun around, outstretching a hand as she did. Her fist grazed his cheek. Neji snatched her wrist and twisted. Tenten flipped with his assault, and landed solidly. She slipped her wrist from his grasp and hopped back a few meters.

Neji assumed a familiar stance. "Eight Trigrams, Sixty Four Palms!"

Tenten's eyes widened. _Oh, shi—_

Neji stood before her in a second, palms at the ready. She dodged as many jabs as she could, cringing when they reached their mark. Most of his attacks, she knew, were just to provoke her.

Tenten knocked away the sixty-fourth palm and quickly aimed a roundhouse kick at his face. Neji caught her leg and implanted a palm into her thigh. Tenten hissed and jumped back two meters.

Tenten blew a few loose strands out of her eyes. _The nerve of him! _She charged again.

Neji flipped Tenten over his head with ease. Tenten groaned and rolled out of the way as Neji's chakra filled hand hit the ground. Tenten glared up at him, her back to the ground.

"That could've been me!" she yelled, motioning at the new crater. Dust steamed from the charred center.

"But it isn't," Neji replied. "So it doesn't matter."

"You are so dead!"

Tenten launched herself at his feet, grabbing a hold of Neji's ankles. She held tightly as Neji kicked his legs around.

Neji scowled in irritation. He bent back, and clenched Tenten's ankles. Tenten gasped.

"Neji," Tenten said slowly. "What are you doing?"

"I'm responding to your rather childish assaults, Tenten," Neji said.

"Oh, ha ha."

Then Neji did something neither of them would have anticipated; he collapsed on her. The weight of his body slammed onto hers and the air in her lungs knocked out of her. She opened her mouth to yell at him but closed it when she realized where her head was. She blushed. Her head was in between Neji's legs, her chin just inches from his crotch.

Her body went limp.

Neji quickly sat up and slid back so that he sat on her waist. Tenten bit her lip, angry at herself for not moving, angry for not minding their predicament. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. _Get a grip! _For once, she was glad that they had been training as long as they did. It gave her an excuse for a flushed face.

She opened her eyes to a smug looking Neji. He bent down. Tenten's eye's flashed and her heart stopped. _Is he going to…?_ Her traitorous body closed its eyes. Her skin tingled when warm lips grazed her cheek. She felt a cool blade at her throat. Tenten could feel his smirk.

"I win." Neji got up, walking toward the water bottles stashed in a nearby grove of trees. "By the way, the chakra in your legs should return in a few hours."

Tenten lay still in the short grass, glaring at the tops of the trees. Gai-sensei once said that you learn something important with every battle. She definitely learned something today. _When it comes to affairs of the heart, never trust Rock Lee with your secrets._


	2. Gossip

**Disclaimer: I don't own.**

Prompt: Gossip

* * *

Tenten hated the rumors.

The subtle glances of envy, of hatred, and of contempt, as if it was bound to happen. It was the "score" wink from Ino and the look of pride from Sakura. It was Hinata's flushed face whenever she saw them together. The old ladies batting their bare gums. The young girls looking up at her in admiration. It was as if the entire village anticipated it and wouldn't be surprised if the two of them had public displays of affection. It was as if the fact that two of them were walking down the street together _was_ a public display of affection.

Tenten kicked at a pebble. Neji gave her an exasperated look. She glared back playfully. She focused her attention on the ground, pointedly ignoring the buzz of the marketplace. It was annoying really, the unwanted attention they received when seen together.

There, to the right of them, near the onions, stood two women, chatting and giggling, barely playing attention to their shopping. She could here them now. _It's too cute!_ The other would giggle. _I know. They should announce it!_

So what if she and Neji were often on the same mission? So what if he was seen walking towards the library with her in at least the general vicinity? So what if they spent more time together than they did with their family and other friends? It was because they were training hard to become better ninja. If their skills complemented each other, why not? Wouldn't that only be expected? They were friends. Best friends even. Nothing more, nothing less. Why couldn't society see their relationship as platonic?

Walking past them was a middle-aged man with his hands shoved in his pockets. _What I would do to be young and in love again._ He would think then sigh. _They remind me of what we were Cho…_ He'd sigh again and move at a faster pace.

Relationship_._ What a strange word to use for them. Tenten mused. More like situation, circumstance. Not _relationship._ Why did the world insist on that?

She scowled at a group of girls huddled near the tomatoes, whispering and watching them intently. _She's so lucky. If I was old enough, Neji would be mine._ One would sigh dreamily. _I don't care what our age difference is! Neji will be mine forever. I'll bedazzle him with my superior beauty._ One would announce. Another would nod dumbly, agreeing for the sake of being 'cool.'

Tenten looked at Neji out of the corner of her eyes and almost sighed herself. She really, really hated rumors. And it wasn't because people made up stories or tried to catch them doing something 'naughty.'

They stopped at a stand. Tenten glanced around uncomfortably. Across the crowd of people passing, an old lady glared at them from her position near the fish. Tenten shifted uncomfortably as she waited for Neji to finish picking out knives. She normally loved assisting him, but under the circumstances… _The indecency of young people these days, _Tenten heard her think. The old lady would watch Neji test the balance of the blade on his finger, flip it with ease, ask Tenten for her opinion. She would watch Tenten would quickly supply an answer, and think, _Just look at them! The nerve of them! Flaunting hormones for everyone to see!_

Neji nodded at Tenten, signaling that he was finished. They began walking again. Tenten's shoulders ease as they gained sizable distance from the old lady. Tenten bought a small bottle of bubble juice.

As they set off again, Neji grabbed the bottle and read the writing. _Gishi's Wonderful Magical Bubble Juice! Warning: Not for children under the ages of 4. Not tested on animals. Not recommended to Rock Lee, as there are traces of alcohol._ Neji held the bottle out to Tenten with an incredulous look. Tenten snatched it back, sticking her tongue out as she did. Neji shook his head. Tenten blushed seven shades of red upon realizing that the majority of the female population in the market was staring at them with mischievous looks.

Tenten hated rumors because all of their speculations were wrong. She hated rumors because they caused her friends—and teacher, much to her mortification— to poke and prod her for what was _really_ going on. She hated rumors because girls started chatting shamelessly about what they thought Neji would do with his 'one true love.' She hated rumors because it felt as if the whole village was teasing her. Because there was no way in hell that Neji could ever like her.

"I can't stand it!" Tenten exclaimed, stomping her foot. She had stopped walking.

"What?" Neji said blankly.

Tenten gave him an indignant look "Don't you hear them?" She waited for Neji's response, but when he said nothing, she continued. "The gossip spreading!" Neji blinked at her. "About _us!"_ There was a pregnant pause.

"I didn't think that that would bother you," Neji said.

"So you _knew!"_ Tenten nearly yelled.

Neji scoffed. "Of course I knew."

"Doesn't it bug you that people are talking about what they fantasize us doing when we're alone? That they'll probably make up something 'interesting' so that they'll just have something to talk about!" The back of Tenten's neck burned. Maybe she had said too much.

Neji frowned at the crowd of people shopping then turned to her. "Rumors can be annoying, I suppose. Especially since they're not true."

"Exactly!" Tenten's hands went to her hips. "Like that one about us purposely ripping clothes during sparring—" Tenten fought back a blush. "—and that one about us making out in the middle of a crowded public place, and that one—"

"Have you memorized all of them?"

Tenten glared at his amused expression.

"Because if you have—" Neji grabbed her shoulders and stirred her in front of him, a smirk growing on his face. Their foreheads touched and the feeling of his breath on her face made her legs feel like jelly and every pore in her body to tingle. "Let's give them something to talk about, starting with the latter."


End file.
